Hi all! I'm feeling that seasonal glow because Christmas came early this year... I went and picked up a 149 fixer yesterday:
I've never worked on anything hydrostatic before so I'm looking forward to the challenge. I'm hoping some of you guys who've been around the block a few times can start me off in the right direction.
Here are the facts, M'am: The PO owns a boat repair business and was using the tractor to tow boats around the yard. (It had an old Sears tiller on the back but he never used it, he just left it there as ballast.) He said that about a year ago, the transmission "just suddenly quit, like the engine wasn't connected through to the wheels anymore". He also said that it had been somewhat jerky before that. He has a business to run so he basically abandoned it. He says the engine was running just fine up until the transmission quit.
From what I've read in the faq and archives, the jerky operation sounds like a trunion problem. So I pulled off the center cover and gave that area very quick check. The linkage is somewhat loose but not terrible, and it operates smoothly. It was too dark at the time to see what kind of shape the trunion springs were in. I did notice, however, that the cooling fan has every single blade broken off. I reckon the hydraulics will have been running a tad hot as a result.
I gather that a good bet for why the transmission would suddenly quit would be a sheared pin either at the rag joint or right aft of the engine. That's the first thing I'll dig into. But another odd thing is that I didn't need to depress the release valves to roll the tractor around. Could it be that someone pressed in the release valves and they stuck down, since they'd been sitting for a year? If it's not that, I'm afraid I may be looking at a serious problem here. Can I tell from looking at them if they're in the up or down position?
Unfortunately, the tractor has to live about 40 minutes drive from my home, for the time being. Saturday morning I'll head out there with a fresh battery, some fresh fuel and a can of PB. Whether or not I can get the engine started, is there any other guidance on how I should proceed with the driveline? Is there any danger in trying to start up the engine under these conditions? (I'll check the oil level and throw a tablespoon of oil into the top end before trying.) Main objective is just to run the engine long enough to help diagnose the hydro.
Thanks in advance. I'll post more pictures once I get into it farther. Those of you under a pile of ice, I hope things get back to normal soon for you. Those of you with just the fluffy stuff, I'm a bit envious -- we've only seen a few flakes here in Oregon.